Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The motion moved by the new member for Robertson is a collection of half-truths, highly misleading statements and deliberate omissions about the coalition's infrastructure track record. The most egregious of those concern the claims that are made in relation to funding for roads on the Central Coast, because the motion refers to $40 million of funding for Central Coast roads in the October budget. I think it's important that the House should be fully acquainted with the facts.

The first relevant fact is that the former coalition government committed to an $86.5 million Central Coast roads package. This was fully funded, and the funding was fully allocated. There was a funding profile which extended over several years, with the final component of this total package to be provided in the 2026-27 year. That was the starting point. Then, on 11 May, the coalition committed to a further package of $40 million to improve the safety and quality of roads in the Central Coast region. Roads to be upgraded under this package include Hue Hue Road, Jilliby; Alison Road, Wyong; The Scenic Road at MacMasters Beach; Davistown Road at Saratoga and Davistown; Rickard Road, Empire Bay; Lakedge Avenue, Berkeley Vale; Peats Ridge Road, Somersby; and Cape Three Points Road, Avoca Beach. The funding was to be provided to local government in the region to support its roadworks program. Again I emphasise that this was in addition to the $86.5 million already committed and budgeted.

On 13 May, two days later, the Labor Party matched the coalition's $40 million Central Coast roads package election policy. In Labor's announcement, the then Labor candidate—and now Labor member—for Robertson, had this to say: 'This $40 million investment will also ease congestion and save locals from damaging their cars because of crater-sized potholes on our roads.' What he should have said was: 'We are committing to this funding for one reason only—because the Liberal member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, fought hard to get this money and Prime Minister Morrison and Treasurer Frydenberg agreed to it, and now I'm coming along to free ride on all of Lucy Wicks's hard work.' If the member for Robertson had been into giving full disclosure to his soon-to-be constituents, that is what he would have said.

But the story does not end there. We need to look at what the Albanese Labor government did in the October budget. On the one hand, yes, it's true: the Albanese Labor government delivered on the coalition's election promise for a $40 million Central Coast roads package—the package that they scrambled to match during the election. But they did something else. They cut $35.7 million from the pre-existing Central Coast roads package, cancelling proposed upgrades to Rawson Road and Springwood Street. It doesn't stop there; it gets worse. In addition, they deferred by two years $13.9 million originally budgeted for 2022-23 and $18.2 million budgeted from 2023-24, under the pre-existing Central Coast roads package.

If the Labor member for Robertson were to be honest with his constituents, he would tell him that, on his watch, the net funding change for Central Coast roads across those two years—2022-23 and 2023-24—was minus $37.8 million because, while he might have got an extra $40 million for Central Coast roads, he stood by and did nothing while $67.8 million was taken away or deferred. This Labor member for Robertson is a mug. He got completely conned by a Victorian based minister for infrastructure and a Queensland based Treasurer. I tell you what: Lucy Wicks would never have fallen for this pea-and-thimble trick.

There is a proud coalition legacy of investments to benefit the Central Coast, with $1 billion funded in the March 2022-23 budget for the Tuggerah to Wyong faster rail upgrade and $336 million to upgrade the Pacific Highway through Wyong. Also, in the March 2022 budget, there is $51.2 million to upgrade the Central Coast Highway and Tumbi Road intersection, which is a project Labor have delayed in the October 2022 budget—a very familiar story—and more than $35 million committed to Central Coast council under the Roads to Recovery Program and the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program. Our government delivered for the Central Coast, and Lucy Wicks was a great member. The current member is not up to it.

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